I actually began my journey to redesign the physical aspect of my classroom 6 years ago when I began my teaching career. When I first stepped into my brand new classroom as a brand new teacher to teach a group of 5th graders Math and Science, I was presented with a classroom full of desks made for lecture and writing and one tiny box full of colored counters. Over the years, I accumulated more materials for the students to use and as I incorporated them into my lessons the materials would just slide right off their desk. Students would work with a set of plastic base-ten blocks that would just continually fall to the ground and break. I would also have to take my students down to our library to do science activities. The flat desktops worked way better when measuring liquid in a graduated cylinder. I didn't even attempt to try the science activities in my classroom full of inclined desks. It wasn't until the end of my 4th year of teaching until I was able to gather up enough left over flat top desks from around the school to put into my classroom. But still yet, it would be a month or so before I would receive my chairs to go with the desks.
My Classroom in 2011
My Classroom in 2016
During this same year of teaching, Eastern Kentucky was awarded a Race to the Top grant. As part of this grant, teachers were given the opportunity to apply for small grants that would allow them to incorporate new and innovative ideas into their classroom. I new this was my chance to be able to get items for my classroom that I normally wouldn't have. I applied and received a grant for two iPads and an Apple TV. The same year, I wrote another grant and received ChromeBooks for each of my students to use in my classroom. It is through the use of these technologies that I was able to incorporate math videos of my lessons into the classroom to provide students with the opportunity to review the material at anytime, any where, creating a 24 virtual teacher. I would post the videos on my classroom YouTube page and not only did students in my classroom watch and learn from the videos, but students from all over the world watched them. Some videos even have over 8,000 views!
I applied for another grant to redesign my classroom learning space and was awarded $1,000 to incorporate innovative ideas into my classroom. I began by asking the students what they would want in their classroom and even had them to draw a classroom layout to show where everything would go. I was also able to connect with a group of pre-service teachers from the University of Kentucky to gather their ideas as well
For this classroom redesign, I implemented collaborative, digital, and interactive learning spaces. I had an entire wall of lockers removed and tore off bulletin boards from another wall. I applied a fresh coat of paint
I implemented an active learning space by bringing in standing height tables with a countertops that have dry erase capabilities. The students will have the option to sit on stools or stand to complete their activities using dry erase markers.
A dry erase round table was also added to the learning space to help promote collaboration among students and their peers. A lower level seating area for students was also created and flexible seating was included within the room. l also included a digital collaboration station that has a dry erase table top as well as a TV connected to an Apple TV so that students can share their work with a larger audience as they work on their iPad. Students also used this digital collaboration station to share their work products among groups in the classroom using the iPad as a wireless document camera. I even had a video crew to come in to visit my classroom during the "Big Reveal" to create a video that will be shared with educators from across the region as well as across the world.